Correlations of Hepatic Hemodynamics,Liver Function,and Fibrosis Markers in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Comparison with Chronic Hepatitis Related to Hepatitis C Virus

The progression of chronic liver disease differs by etiology. The aim of this study was to elucidate the difference in disease progression between chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by means of fibrosis markers, liver function, and hepatic tissue blood flow (TBF). Xenon computed tomography (Xe-CT) was performed in 139 patients with NAFLD and 152 patients with CHC (including liver cirrhosis (LC)). The cutoff values for fibrosis markers were compared between NAFLD and CHC, and correlations between hepatic TBF and liver function tests were examined at each fibrosis stage. The cutoff values for detection of the advanced fibrosis stage were lower in NAFLD than in CHC. Although portal venous TBF (PVTBF) correlated with liver function tests, PVTBF in initial LC caused by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH-LC) was significantly lower than that in hepatitis C virus (C-LC) (p = 0.014). Conversely, the liver function tests in NASH-LC were higher than those in C-LC (p < 0.05). It is important to recognize the difference between NAFLD and CHC. We concluded that changes in hepatic blood flow occurred during the earliest stage of hepatic fibrosis in patients with NAFLD; therefore, patients with NAFLD need to be followed carefully.     

Regional forecasts of photovoltaic power generation according to different data availability scenarios: a study of four methods

The development of methods to forecast photovoltaic (PV) power generation regionally is of utmost importance to support the spread of such power systems in current power grids. The objective of this study is to propose and to evaluate methods to forecast regional PV power 1 day ahead of time and to compare their performances. Four forecast methods were regarded, of which two are new ones proposed in this study. Together, they characterize a set of forecast methods that can be applied in different scenarios regarding availability of data and infrastructure to make the forecasts. The forecast methods were based on the use of support vector regression and weather prediction data. Evaluations were performed for 1 year of hourly forecasts using data of 273 PV systems installed in two adjacent regions in Japan, Kanto, and Chubu. The results show the importance of selecting the proper forecast method regarding the region characteristics. For Chubu, the region with a variety of weather conditions, the forecast methods based on single systems' forecasts and the one based on stratified sampling provided the best results. In this case, the best annual normalized root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were 0.25 and 0.15 kWh/kWh_avg, respectively. For Kanto, with homogeneous weather conditions, the four methods performed similarly. In this case, the lowest annual forecast errors were 0.33 kWh/kWh_avg for the normalized RMSE and 0.202 kWh/kWh_avg for the normalized MAE. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabrication of CaCO3-Coated Vesicles by Biomineralization and Their Application as Carriers of Drug Delivery Systems

We fabricated CaCO₃-coated vesicles as drug carriers that release their cargo under a weakly acidic condition. We designed and synthesized a peptide lipid containing the Val-His-Val-Glu-Val-Ser sequence as the hydrophilic part, and with two palmitoyl groups at the N-terminal as the anchor groups of the lipid bilayer membrane. Vesicles embedded with the peptide lipids were prepared. The CaCO₃ coating of the vesicle surface was performed by the mineralization induced by the embedded peptide lipid. The peptide lipid produced the mineral source, CO₃²⁻, for CaCO₃ mineralization through the hydrolysis of urea. We investigated the structure of the obtained CaCO₃-coated vesicles using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The vesicles retained the spherical shapes, even in vacuo. Furthermore, the vesicles had inner spaces that acted as the drug cargo, as observed by the TEM tomographic analysis. The thickness of the CaCO₃ shell was estimated as ca. 20 nm. CaCO₃-coated vesicles containing hydrophobic or hydrophilic drugs were prepared, and the drug release properties were examined under various pH conditions. The mineralized CaCO₃ shell of the vesicle surface was dissolved under a weakly acidic condition, pH 6.0, such as in the neighborhood of cancer tissues. The degradation of the CaCO₃ shell induced an effective release of the drugs. Such behavior suggests potential of the CaCO₃-coated vesicles as carriers for cancer therapies.     

Electron beam sterilization of cyclo olefin polymer leads to polymer degradation and production of alkyl radicals

We investigated the effects of electron‐beam (EB) sterilization on syringe barrels manufactured from cyclo olefin polymer (COP). The chemical structure of the polymer was determined by interpreting the ¹³C NMR and DEPT‐135 spectra of the COP resin. The antioxidants in the resin were identified by analyzing the liquid chromatography‐photo diode array‐mass spectrometry (LC‐PDA‐MS) data for the methanol extract of the resin and the gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) data for the supercritical methanol degradation products of the extract. NMR and LC‐PDA‐MS analyses revealed that EB sterilization produces degradation products in the COP main chain and reduces the quantity of the antioxidants in the COP resin. ESR spectra of the EB‐sterilized syringe barrels indicated the presence and location of alkyl radicals, which were generated in the COP main chain by EB sterilization. ESR analyses also indicated that the quantity of alkyl radicals decreased over time. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43498.     

Diffusion process of amino acids in polymer supports for solid‐phase peptide synthesis as studied by pulsed‐field‐gradient spin‐echo proton nuclear magnetic resonance

The diffusion coefficient (D) values of tert‐butyloxycarbonyl‐glycine, tert‐butyloxycarbonyl‐L ‐tryptophan, tert‐butyloxycarbonyl‐L ‐phenylalanine (Boc‐Phe), and 9‐fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl‐L ‐phenylalanine in Merrifield polystyrene (MPS) gels, poly(ethylene glycol)‐grafted polystyrene (PEG–PS) gels, and crosslinked ethoxylate acrylate (CLEAR) gels, as used in solid‐phase peptide synthesis, were determined by the pulsed‐field‐gradient spin‐echo ¹H‐NMR method. From these experimental results, it was found that the amino acids in MPS gels, PEG–PS gels, and CLEAR gels with N,N‐dimethylformamide‐d₇ (DMF‐d₇) as a solvent had multidiffusion components within a measurement timescale of 10 ms. The D value of Boc‐Phe in polystyrene gels (1% divinylbenzene crosslinked) with tetrahydrofuran‐d₈ was much larger than that in the same gels with DMF‐d₇. Furthermore, the required time in which an amino acid transferred from a reactive site to a reactive site was estimated, within which the solvents and amino acids in the polymer supports diffused in the swollen beads.© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 413–421, 2003     

Relationship Between Structure and Coordination Strength of N and N,O-Hybrid Donor Ligands with Trivalent Lanthanides

ABSTRACT

To effectively separate lanthanides (Ln(III)) from actinides (An(III)), symmetrical 2,2′-bipyridyl (Bpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen), and unsymmetrical N-methyl-N-tolyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2-carboxamide (MeTol-PTA) were investigated. According to the crystal structures and EXAFS experiments, the decreasing ionic radius from light to heavy Ln led to decreases in the Ln–N (Bpy) and Ln–N (Phen) distances, while log β simply increased due to the electrostatic interaction and the order of Ln–O (MeTol-PTA) < Ln–N (Bpy, Phen) < Ln–N (MeTol-PTA) was obtained. This indicated that the bulky phenanthroline moiety of MeTol-PTA may not allow N (MeTol-PTA) to come close to Ln. Consequently, the log β of MeTol-PTA exhibited a local maximum (around Nd).     

High Resistance of Cu–Ferrierite to Coke Formation During NH3-SCR in the Presence of n-Decane

Selective catalytic reduction of NO _x by NH₃ over Cu–FER and Cu–ZSM-5 in the presence of n-decane and SO₂ was investigated. NO _x conversion over Cu–ZSM-5 decreased in the presence of n-decane, owing to inhibition of the active sites by coke formation. In contrast, coke formation was negligible over Cu–FER, which maintained its NO _x conversion activity even in the presence of decane. Coke formation was negligible over H–ZSM-5 and H–FER supports, which suggests that Cu species were involved in coke formation. Temperature-programmed reduction by H₂ and electron spin resonance spectroscopy indicated that [Cu–O–Cu]²⁺ was probably the Cu species involved in coke formation over Cu–ZSM-5.     

Catalytic Performance of Aged Rh/CeO2–ZrO2 for NO–C3H6–O2 Reaction Under a Stoichiometric Condition

The activity of Rh/CeO₂ for NO reduction by C₃H₆ was gradually deceased by mixing with ZrO₂ until 68 mol%. Rh supported on CeO₂–ZrO₂ with higher OSC was found to show lower catalytic activity. High OSC of CeO₂–ZrO₂ would probably stabilize the surface of Rh in oxidized state, resulting in low activity and low efficiency of C₃H₆ utilization for NO reduction. In situ FT-IR spectroscopy suggested that mononitrosyl species such as Rh(NO)^δ? and Rh(NO)^δ+ are reaction intermediates in the NO–C₃H₆–O₂ reaction over Rh/CeO₂–ZrO₂ catalysts.     

Effect of blending on liquefaction of coals

After solvent extraction of Taiheiyo, Miike and Balmer coals using wash oil under nitrogen atmosphere at 370 °C for 30 min, the extraction yield is always within the additivity law. Further studies used Yallourn, Soyakoishi, Taiheiyo, Horonai, Miike, Shin Yubari, Balmer coals and their blends which were hydrogenated in tetralin, wash oil or creosote oil, with or without catalyst, at 400–450 °C under 10 or 3 MPa of initial hydrogen pressure. When hydrogen is available, the additivity law exists for blended coals, but when the hydrogen supply is deficient, the experimental conversion of blended coals is always lower than calculated conversions. This may be due to the faster consumption of the hydrogen by more reactive coals and thus the less reactive coals were unable to react with hydrogen.     

A Multiple‐Labeling Strategy for Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases Using Active‐Site‐Directed Proteomic Probes for Adenylation Domains

Genetic approaches have greatly contributed to our understanding of nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic machinery; however, proteomic investigations are limited. Here, we developed a highly sensitive detection strategy for multidomain nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) by using a multiple‐labeling technique with active‐site‐directed probes for adenylation domains. When applied to gramicidin S‐producing and ‐nonproducing strains of Aneurinibacillus migulanus (DSM 5759 and DSM 2895, respectively), the multiple technique sensitively detected an active multidomain NRPS (GrsB) in lysates obtained from the organisms. This functional proteomics method revealed an unknown inactive precursor (or other inactive form) of GrsB in the nonproducing strain. This method provides a new option for the direct detection, functional analysis, and high‐resolution identification of low‐abundance active NRPS enzymes in native proteomic environments.